The Egyptian Electricity Holding Company (EEHC) has obtained a loan from the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) for $243m to finance the automated control centres of the electricity distribution companies of Alexandria, North Delta, and North Cairo. Sources in the Ministry of Electricity said that the payment period is 30 years with a 1-year grace period and an interest rate of 0.01%. There were two options to launch the tender, the first was to launch them to local companies only with a higher interest rate, or for international companies with a lower interest rate. The job of the automated control centres is to monitor the medium voltage grid, make modifications and additions of date, monitor operation data, store them, give warning on the occurrence of an increase or decrease of voltage, and detect faults. The minister stressed the necessity of developing the three transmission control centres and the 14 distribution control centres, noting that eight companies have expressed their desire to contribute to the development of these centres, namely Siemens, General Electric, ABB, Schneider, Dongfang, DFE, PSI, and Huawei.

Source: Daily News Egypt May 28, 2017 15:00 UTC